How do I decide which things to write about on Stuff Christians Like?
Sometimes someone tries to go “interdigit” on me during the “please hold hands” time at church and awkwardly weave their fingers between mine like we’re roller skating. So I write about that.
Sometimes the hip worship leader wears a scarf with a short sleeve shirt, which is body temperature confusion. So I write about that.
Sometimes I tell someone I will pray for them and then I completely forget to, effectively turning, “I’ll pray for you,” into the Christian version of “I’ll call you.” So I write about that.
Mostly, I just keep my eyes open and respond to what’s happening in the world. Such is the case with the NFL player who recently dropped a winning touchdown and proceeded to blame God on Twitter.
After dropping a catch he should have made that would have won the game, Buffalo Bills receiver Stevie Johnson tweeted this:
I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO…
Reading that, I was struck with a number of thoughts:
1. We are living in a golden age of tweets right now. Can you imagine all the goodness we missed years ago when athletes and celebrities couldn’t publically proclaim things they instantly regret? If you’re in Public Relations, you cry every time your client gets on Twitter, tweets something horrible and then has to say the ever popular lie, “Oh, someone hacked my Twitter account. I didn’t say that.”
2. If the question is, “Does God hate the Buffalo Bills?” the answer is pretty obvious. Yes, yes he does. They lost four Super Bowls in a row. That’s consecutive. For four straight years they went to the Super Bowl and then lost. Often in close, painful ways. I think it’s fair to say that God is not a fan of the Bills.
3. I thought it was refreshing to see a player talk about God even when he lost. Everyone gives God a shout out when they win the game. People who haven’t been to a church or prayed in years will throw a finger to the sky in honor of the man upstairs, but for once someone brought up God after the game. Granted, I wish instead he said, “God is in control. Win or lose, it’s his game and his world, so he gets to do what he wants to do.”
4. I blame the snow. It starts snowing in Buffalo the day after July 4th and stops in May. Snow makes people mean. Snow makes people say crazy things. You think it’s going to be all fluffy and soft and Norman Rockwell hot cocoa-y, but it’s not. The first day is like Thomas Kinkade, but the next day the snow freezes into a rock solid snow bank that becomes incrusted with sand and salt and sadness. My Georgian wife got frustrated in Massachusetts and eventually said, “Somebody is moving back to Georgia. I hope it’s both of us.” That was the snow talking.
What do you think about sports and God? Josh Hamilton gave God some awesome praise when they won, do you think we’ll start seeing more people mention God when they lose? Do you think we’ll see more God shout outs from athletes on Twitter?
